9. Della Chatfield & Elmer Ellsworth Chatfield

Chatfield, Ida: age 13, daughter, at school, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Della: age 8, daughter, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Ora: age 7, daughter, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Clark S.: age 8, son, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Arthur: age 1, son, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Howell, L.C.: age 32, farmer, born West Virginia

Baker G.R.: age 23, farmer, born West Virginia

Baker, R.M.: age 31, dentist, born West Virginia

Chatfield, Ida: age 18, daughter, at school, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Della: age 13, daughter, at school, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Ora: age 12, daughter, at school, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Clark S.: age 9, son, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Arthur: age 8, son, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Willard: age 4, son, born Colorado, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Mable: age 1, daughter, born Colorado, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Ida: age 19, daughter, at school, born Illinois, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Dell: age 13, daughter, at school, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Geo: age 11, son, at school, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois (note: Ora, daughter)

Chatfield, Clark S.: age 9, son, at school, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, A.: age 7, son, at school, born Nebraska, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois (note: Arthur)

Chatfield, Willard: age 4, son, born Colorado, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Chatfield, Mabel: age 1, daughter, born Colorado, father born Ohio, mother born Illinois

Mr. and Mrs. Eames have determined to leave Aspen, Mr. Eames having made business connections in the southern part of the state. They will take their departure to-morrow, and the reception given them at the Hotel Jerome last evening was in the nature of a farewell to their friends here.

The guests began to arrive by 9 0’clock and by 10 the large parlors were crowded.

The dining room was cleared and soon after 10 o’clock the Silver Crescent Orchestra struck up a march which was a signal for the company to repair to the dancing floor…

Among the guests of the evening were the following: … J.A. Small,
Della Chatfield, Lizzie Gerard, Jacqueline Chatfield, …(et al)

Miss Della Chatfield is in the city a guest of relatives.

It was widely publicized both nationally and internationally, and people traveled from all over the world to see the spectacle. Travelers came from the East by “Exposition Flyers”—Pullman coaches traveling at the amazing speed of 80 mph—which gave “many Americans their first look at the country beyond the Alleghenies…”. People left their factories, their farms, and their city businesses to participate in what was touted as the greatest cultural and entertainment event in the history of the world.

The goals of the management and the reactions of the public to this massive event reveal a great deal about the state of America at the close of the Gilded Age. The early 1890s were a time of considerable turmoil in America, and the conflicting interests and ideas found full play in the presentation and reception of the Fair. It was an age of increasing fragmentation and confusion, of self-conscious searching for an identity on a personal and on a national level. The industrial, and increasingly electrical, revolutions were transforming America; the American way of life was no longer based on agriculture, but on factories and urban centers, and the end of the Gilded Age signified the advent of what Alan Trachtenberg has called the “incorporation of America,” the shift of social control from the people and government to big business. The accompanying shift from a producer to a consumer society and the incredible growth of these corporations led to financial instability. Recessions and the devastating Depression of 1893, the violent Homestead and Pullman labor strikes, and widespread unemployment and homelessness plagued the early years of the decade. The frontier was closing, immigration, technological advances, and the railroads had changed the face of the country, and suddenly “Americanness” was more and more difficult to define. Americans were at once confused, excited, and overwhelmed.

While visitors flocked to the Fair’s physical representation of unity, and in some sense utopia, reality had a terrible way of sneaking in. There were constant reminders of the growing economic problems of the country, which deepened into a four-year depression in the summer of 1893. Many conservatives believed the depression was caused by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which they claimed undermined business confidence in the Gold Standard. Others found the genesis of the downturn in the weakness of the banking system, the growing economic interdependence in the country, but most of all the rapid expansion of the railroad industry, which had grown beyond demand due to competition. (Faulkner, 143) As railroads began to fail, the fortunes of industries allied with the railroads began to take a downturn as well—especially a number of prominent banks. Over the course of the four-year depression, 15,000 businesses failed, 600 banks closed, 50 railroads became insolvent, and at least 2.5 million Americans were unemployed.

Chatfield, Helen L.: daughter, age 16, born Colorado, father born Colorado, mother born Nebraska

Chatfield, Marion H.: daughter, age 14, born Wyoming, father born Colorado, mother born Nebraska

Chatfield, Sevilla M.: daughter, age 11, born Wyoming, father born Colorado, mother born Nebraska

Chatfield, Audrey E.: daughter, age 9, born Wyoming, father born Colorado, mother born Nebraska

Chatfield, Constance C.: daughter, age 4, born Wyoming, father born Colorado, mother born Nebraska

YOU AND YOUR NEIGHBOR

Mrs. Elmer Chatfield returned home this week from Rochester, Minnesota, where she had gone for medical treatment at the Mayo hospital.